But first, a bus ride

With our plane, a direct flight from Chicago to Dublin via Aer Lingus, not departing until 8:30 this evening, my wife and I were able to start the day in a relaxed weekend fashion.  Read the paper, she the State Journal, me the New York Times, over coffee.   Walk to Sofra in downtown Middleton for breakfast, a not so typical activity as we enjoy preparing  breakfast ourselves, but with little in the fridge, our menu was limited to granola, fruit, and yogurt, which I routinely have for breakfast on weekday mornings.  Enjoy the green serenity of the Pheasant Branch Nature Preserve trail, as were many others -- runners, bikers, strollers, dog-walkers.  Apparently, the birders had already returned home.  

Rather than drive and pay the exorbitant cost of long-term parking, we're riding the Van Galder bus, which departed from the UW-Madison campus promptly at 1:00.   Our anticipated arrival at the O'Hare's international terminal is 4:15, which should allow us to avoid any panic about moving through long and slow-moving security lines.  I probably didn't need to stumble across this article in the Chicago Tribune a few days ago.  

TSA to add staff, but O'Hare tells passengers to arrive 3 hours before flight

An excerpt.  

Staffing problems are hitting the flying public hard. About 450 American Airlines Customers at O'Hare International Airport missed flights Sunday due to lines of more than two hours, and dozens who couldn't get on a later flight slept on cots at the terminal, American spokeswoman Leslie Scott said.

My wife and I hope you can look forward to nothing but good reports. 

Speaking of atypical breakfast, take a gander at this breakfast burrito as served up by the Short Stack Eatery on State Street in Madison

I wasn't able to finish it in a single session.